June 20, 2025 | By Alex Nietem, WOO Sprint Car PR

Buddy Kofoid Cashes in for $100,000 Huset’s Hustle Payday

BRANDON, S.D.—Maybe it’s time to addressing Huset’s Speedway as Michael “Buddy” Kofoid’s personal bank.

Two years ago, the Brandon, SD track dealt him and his Roth Motorsports team the ultimate devastation. Kofoid was leading the biggest winner’s share in Series history at the 2023 BillionAuto.com Huset’s High Bank Nationals presented by Menards with less than 10 laps to go. Suddenly, mechanical misfortune slowed the No. 83 and sent him off track with a DNF. So close to a quarter of a million dollars only to be dealt heartbreak.

Needless to say, that night motivated Kofoid and company. They returned last fall and banked $100,000 at the rescheduled High Bank Nationals finale. Then this week brought the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series back to Huset’s with a pair of six-figure paydays on the line. Kofoid flexed his muscle in Wednesday’s Huset’s Hustle prelim with an eighth to third drive.

That set the stage for Thursday’s $100,000 main event where Kofoid lined up third for the 40-lapper. Polesitter Bill Balog took the early lead, and it took only two circuits for Kofoid to drive around Kyle Larson for second.

Then the pursuit of Balog began for the Penngrove, CA native. He wasted little time in closing in, but passing “The North Pole Nightmare” was another story. Kofoid threw several sliders at the No. 17B but couldn’t quite clear him. Finally, a lapped car giving Balog issues gave Kofoid the chance he needed. The 23-year-old built a big run and slid ahead of Balog to take the top spot. Traffic allowed Balog to close back in late, but it wasn’t enough to find a way around. Kofoid took the checkered flag and added six figures to his bank account.

“I’m out of breath. I don’t know what to say,” said an overwhelmed Kofoid. “Winning a six-figure race once is life changing as far as statistically in the Sprint Car world. For me, who appreciates the history, it’s cool to do it once let alone twice at pretty much my favorite track. I don’t even know. To be honest, I feel like I haven’t been the best car this weekend until this race just now, and that’s all due to Dylan (Buswell). I’m so lucky to have someone like him in my corner. I’m glad he’s not working with anyone else. I’m glad I don’t have to race against him. Nate and John, they do an outstanding job. They all work together super well, and I’m having the best time of my life.”

The win meant Kofoid has claimed both of Huset’s six-figure paydays since the trouble in 2023, making him the 12th driver in Sprint Car history with multiple victories worth at least $100,000. He’s up to five in 2025 and 15 overall with The Greatest Show on Dirt, tying him with Jason Sides and Brent Marks for 37th all-time. Huset’s is responsible for three of those checkered flags as, in addition to the massive wins this year and in 2024, Kofoid also picked up his first career World of Outlaws triumph at Huset’s in 2022.

After leading a majority of the main event, Bill Balog settled for second. It was a bitter pill to swallow for the Hartland, WI resident with coming so close to the biggest win of his career. But the runner-up result still brought a $25,000 prize and plenty of reason to be encouraged with a $250,000 payday awaiting Saturday.

“I feel like we’re doing a lot with a little, and I’d like to do a lot with a lot sometimes,” Balog said. “That’s as fast as I can go, so if I can’t win that one, then I don’t know. Congrats to Buddy. I feel like that’s as good as my race car is going to be. We maybe let a little money slip away, but we still had a good finish. Proud to be up here for sure.”

Third place went to Kyle Larson after pulling off a last lap slider on David Gravel. After Wednesday prelim win, “Yung Money” slipped back early in Thursday’s Feature before rallying to a podium position late. He’s only missed the top three once in nine tries with The Greatest Show on Dirt in 2025.

“I just spent way too long not very good and fell back to like sixth,” Larson said. “It really wasn’t until about eight to go that my car finally took off and we could start going forward. It was just a bummer of a race, was hoping for a caution at some point. I don’t know if it would’ve helped me or hurt me, but I was just hopeful of something.”

David Gravel and Tyler Courtney completed the top five.

Rico Abreu went from 16th to 10th to earn the KSE Racing Products Hard Charger.

Heats belonged to Bill Balog (NOS Energy Drink Heat One), Kyle Larson (Real American Beer Heat Two), Buddy Kofoid (WIX Filters Heat Three), David Gravel (TheGreatestStoreonDirt.com Heat Four), Brad Sweet (Toyota Heat Five), and Anthony Macri (NOS Energy Drink Heat Six).

The SPA Technique Polesitter Award went to Bill Balog.

Ashton Torgerson won the Micro-Lite Last Chance Showdown.

The Smith Titanium Brake Systems Break of the Race went to Tim Kaeding.

UP NEXT: The pursuit of a quarter of a million dollars begins for the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Cars on Friday, June 20 at Huset’s Speedway. A $20,000-to-win BillionAuto.com Huset’s High Bank Nationals presented by Menards prelim will set the stage for Saturday’s $250,000 finale. For tickets, CLICK HERE.

If you can’t make it to the track, catch every lap live on DIRTVision.


RESULTS

NOS Energy Drink Feature (40 Laps): 1. 83-Michael Kofoid[3]; 2. 17B-Bill Balog[1]; 3. 57-Kyle Larson[2]; 4. 2-David Gravel[4]; 5. 7BC-Tyler Courtney[8]; 6. 49-Brad Sweet[6]; 7. 55-Hunter Schuerenberg[9]; 8. 15-Donny Schatz[7]; 9. 39M-Anthony Macri[5]; 10. 24-Rico Abreu[16]; 11. 18-Giovanni Scelzi[10]; 12. 41-Carson Macedo[14]; 13. 88T-Tanner Thorson[18]; 14. 14-Spencer Bayston[11]; 15. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild[21]; 16. 10-Ryan Timms[20]; 17. 69K-Christopher Bell[17]; 18. 9R-Chase Randall[15]; 19. 3-Tim Kaeding[12]; 20. 6K-Kaleb Johnson[24]; 21. 1A-Ashton Torgerson[19]; 22. 21-Brian Brown[13]; 23. 87-Aaron Reutzel[23]; 24. 55V-Kerry Madsen[22]

MicroLite Last Chance Showdown (12 Laps): 1. 1A-Ashton Torgerson[1]; 2. 10-Ryan Timms[5]; 3. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild[4]; 4. 55V-Kerry Madsen[3]; 5. 87-Aaron Reutzel[7]; 6. 6K-Kaleb Johnson[11]; 7. 9-Kasey Kahne[2]; 8. 1S-Logan Schuchart[16]; 9. 21H-Brady Bacon[10]; 10. 25-Jy Corbet[9]; 11. 45X-Landon Crawley[20]; 12. 2C-Cole Macedo[13]; 13. 7S-Chris Windom[19]; 14. 8H-Jade Hastings[17]; 15. 53-Jack Dover[22]; 16. 13-Mark Dobmeier[18]; 17. 16-Riley Goodno[21]; 18. 44-Chris Martin[15]; 19. 6-Zach Hampton[6]; 20. 31-Koby Werkmeister[14]; 21. 83H-Justin Henderson[8]; 22. 24T-Christopher Thram[12]

C Feature (10 Laps): 1. 7S-Chris Windom[1]; 2. 45X-Landon Crawley[2]; 3. 16-Riley Goodno[3]; 4. 53-Jack Dover[4]; 5. 99-Skylar Gee[10]; 6. 4-Cameron Martin[5]; 7. 96-Blaine Stegenga[6]; 8. 95-Tyler Drueke[13]; 9. 8-Jacob Hughes[14]; 10. 80P-Jacob Peterson[9]; 11. 33-Scott Broty[15]; 12. 2X-Alex Pettas[12]; 13. 64-Andy Pake[18]; 14. 9D-Dominic Dobesh[19]; 15. 83JR-Sam Henderson[7]; 16. O9-Matt Juhl[8]; 17. G5-Gage Pulkrabek[11]; 18. 28M-Conner Morrell[16]; 19. 23-Garet Williamson[17]

King of the Hill (2 Laps): 1. 17B-Bill Balog[1]; 2. 57-Kyle Larson[2]; 3. 83-Michael Kofoid[3]; 4. 2-David Gravel[4]; 5. 39M-Anthony Macri[6]; 6. 49-Brad Sweet[5]

NOS Energy Drink Heat 1 (10 Laps): 1. 17B-Bill Balog[2]; 2. 14-Spencer Bayston[1]; 3. 41-Carson Macedo[4]; 4. 1A-Ashton Torgerson[3]; 5. 87-Aaron Reutzel[5]; 6. 2C-Cole Macedo[6]; 7. 7S-Chris Windom[8]; 8. 83JR-Sam Henderson[7]; 9. 95-Tyler Drueke[9]; 10. 9D-Dominic Dobesh[10]

Real American Beer Heat 2 (10 Laps): 1. 57-Kyle Larson[1]; 2. 7BC-Tyler Courtney[3]; 3. 88T-Tanner Thorson[2]; 4. 9-Kasey Kahne[5]; 5. 83H-Justin Henderson[4]; 6. 31-Koby Werkmeister[6]; 7. 45X-Landon Crawley[9]; 8. O9-Matt Juhl[7]; 9. 8-Jacob Hughes[8]

WIX Filter Heat 3 (10 Laps): 1. 83-Michael Kofoid[1]; 2. 18-Giovanni Scelzi[2]; 3. 21-Brian Brown[3]; 4. 55V-Kerry Madsen[6]; 5. 25-Jy Corbet[4]; 6. 44-Chris Martin[8]; 7. 16-Riley Goodno[5]; 8. 80P-Jacob Peterson[9]; 9. 33-Scott Broty[7]

The Greatest Store on Dirt Heat 4 (10 Laps): 1. 2-David Gravel[1]; 2. 3-Tim Kaeding[2]; 3. 24-Rico Abreu[5]; 4. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild[3]; 5. 21H-Brady Bacon[7]; 6. 1S-Logan Schuchart[6]; 7. 53-Jack Dover[9]; 8. 99-Skylar Gee[8]; 9. 28M-Conner Morrell[4]

Toyota Heat 5 (10 Laps): 1. 49-Brad Sweet[2]; 2. 15-Donny Schatz[3]; 3. 9R-Chase Randall[6]; 4. 10-Ryan Timms[5]; 5. 6K-Kaleb Johnson[4]; 6. 8H-Jade Hastings[9]; 7. 4-Cameron Martin[7]; 8. G5-Gage Pulkrabek[8]; 9. 23-Garet Williamson[1]

NOS Energy Drink Heat 6 (10 Laps): 1. 39M-Anthony Macri[1]; 2. 55-Hunter Schuerenberg[2]; 3. 69K-Christopher Bell[3]; 4. 6-Zach Hampton[7]; 5. 24T-Christopher Thram[5]; 6. 13-Mark Dobmeier[6]; 7. 96-Blaine Stegenga[8]; 8. 2X-Alex Pettas[9]; 9. 64-Andy Pake[4]